Page 47 of Psycho Shifters

I tried to click on the numb, but it was just out of my grasp. Not enough time had passed.

I was going to have to go into my first battle without the numb. Without a shifter form. With a gun I didn’t know how to use and nothing else.

Ninety-nine percent chance I was dead. The one percent was divine intervention.

I sent a prayer up to the moon goddess for strength and asked her to look after Lucinda if I died.

Cobra turned toward the betas and shouted over the wind, “We stay in groups, and we surround it! Follow your alphas. Like usual, our goal is to incapacitate, not kill the creature. However, the oligarchy has given us permission to kill if needed.” His usual silky voice had a slight lisp to it.

It was also the most I had ever heard him speak at once.

Suddenly, we were running through the forest at breakneck speeds.

My lungs began to burn, and I fell behind the lines of betas. I was slower and smaller than everyone.

Navigating through the woods, I made sure to keep my eyes on the shifters.

Jax led. His lumbering form moved extremely fast through the woods.

Ascher’s ram form was right behind him, his hooves pounding against the ground.

Beside them, Cobra slipped through the forest without making a single sound. Compared to the heavy footsteps of the betas behind him, he was a ghost.

“Screeeeeeeeeee.” The soft clicking shriek grew louder as we ran through the forest.

I stumbled and almost fell face-first into the dirt. A creature from a nightmare stood in the forest.

The fae was a monstrous spider that was at least two times the size of Jax’s bear and probably weighed thousands of pounds.

Eight hairy, spindly legs protruded from two large circular body segments.

Massive black pincers protruded off of its head, and its hundreds of eyes were multifaceted and reflected light from many different angles.

It would have been a spider, if not for the dozen knifelike teeth that jutted at angles around its pincers.

The fae creature was heinous.

The scents of tar and spices burned my nostrils and caused me to choke with disgust. Its body was so large that it could barely stand among the tree trunks. Its spindly legs sprawled at weird angles against the trees.

Jax reared up to this massive height and let out a fearsome roar at the creature.

The sound was so powerful and commanding that the ground rumbled beneath my feet.

I threw myself behind the wide trunk of a tree.

There was a long silence as I waited. Maybe the battle was already over?

I stuck my head around to see what was happening. The spider fae reared its pincers back and let out an ungodly shriek.

Nope, the battle was still very much happening.

The noise was so loud that my right eardrum burst, warm blood poured down the side of my face.

There was a scream behind me, and a beta slumped on the ground. Blood gushed from both his ears. He was out cold.

Ascher leaped from behind the creature and slammed his onyx horns against its body.

A crunch echoed through the forest as he penetrated the creature’s exoskeleton.